The alarming headlines are all over social media.
“Everything changed the day I learned Minecraft has a sex mod”
“Things you need to know: Minecraft has a ‘sex mod.’ Here’s your barf bag.”
“Does Minecraft have ‘sex mods’?
“Minecraft mods: Sex mod download available; moms react”
Confused? Scared? Ready to hide your kids’ electronic devices? Here’s the full story.
Accomplished Minecraft players can write little bits of unofficial game code, called “mods” to add new aspects to their game. They share these mods online in forums and gamer websites, and anyone can download them. Some of these mods are pornographic. For every online or video game, millions of YouTube videos exist of people playing that game. Minecraft is no exception. For the same reasons that porn is so pervasive to begin with, many of the Minecraft videos feature adult and downright pornographic content or “mods.”
The main lesson of this scare is there is no corner of the internet where kids should be spending time without parental supervision. The mom in one post declared herself a “digital explorer”: where her kids go, she goes. Parents should be familiar with every app, every game, and every website their kids use consistently. For occasional or one-time internet destinations, use a parental controls tool like Clean Router to monitor your family’s browsing history.
App ratings are no guarantee, either. In and of itself, Minecraft is pretty innocent. But not all the user forums, gamer websites, and fan-created add-ons are appropriate for kids ten years and older. Parents have to step up and parent their kids online as well as off-line.
To read more about the Minecraft sex mods, click here to read the Snopes explaining the facts and busting the myths.
How do you keep your kids safe online? Comment below!
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